Fully compile my whakapapa

And learnt even more about my whakapapa, including some stuff that I don’t even think my Mum knows! He is the last chief of our family and he is so knowledgable about all of this stuff. He seems to think that I am the one that he should pass all of the information on to, which makes me feel pretty darn special.

I was just talking with him yesterday and sometime in the next two weeks I am going to take over all the whakapapa-related papers I have, and he is going to tell me all about it. YAY!!!

I was talking with my Uncle Bam yesterday and this morning, which in itself was fabulous as I haven’t seen him since I was very little and we have lived in the same city for 5 years (shocking I know)! But back to the point, he is probably the most knowledgable living person on our whakapapa or family tree. So I found out a few really interesting things about our family and our family history, for example our whanau are tuakana (like seniors) to the Te Kanawa family. He really is a wealth of knowledge on this topic and I only wish I had more time with him this weekend.

I told him that I had been doing my own research and he was really interested to see it. So now we have swapped phone numbers and I know where he lives so I will definitely keep in touch, and definitely increase my whakapapa knowledge. Most of the information I already have is from the Maori Land Court records. The problem with that is that spelling mistakes and errors are quite rife. It is way better to be able to speak with someone from the family about it, so I am very grateful that I have my Uncle Bam to talk with and learn from. I can’t wait to go and spend more time with him.

I have already started compiling my whakapapa/family tree. But what I really need to do is focus a bit more time and energy on this. I also need to speak with my Uncle, other elders and locals to find out what they know about my family history. I’m going to text my Uncle shortly.

This is one goal I know I feel very proud about completing, so I shall work away at it slowly but surely